MP accuses Austrian government of Madoff cover up An Austrian MP has filed a series of Parliamentary questions to make public allegations that senior banking officials and others in the Alpine Republic had actively worked with Bernie Madoff to create his global Pyramid scheme.

Snowboarder suffocates in deep snow

A 32-year-old German snowboarder died in deep snow yesterday evening (Wed) in the ski area of Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Salzburg. He was not able to free himself after his fall.

Before the lifts closed down at Reiterkogel, a group of snowboarders went off slope. The German was the last one of the group and got stuck in a trench where, according to the Alpine police, up to four metres of fresh snow had accumulated.

There, the man fell down – head first – and could obviously not support his weight anywhere. Thus, he was not able to breathe.

His friends quickly realized that he was missing, started searching for him and called the lift attendants.

However, the missing person was only discovered after some time had passed. The emergency doctor, who came with a helicopter, could not resuscitate the man.